The Insider Advantage.
LinkedIn profiles that get senior leaders found
LinkedIn is both a search tool and a credibility check. At the senior level, the issue is rarely whether you have a profile. It is whether the profile gives the market a clear reason to contact you.
20 years in executive search. 5,000+ profiles written. A LinkedIn audience of more than 28,500.
A recruiter may find you through a search, receive your name through a referral or review your profile after seeing an application. In each case, the profile influences how they understand your level, experience and fit.
If your headline is simply a job title, your About section says very little and your experience entries contain no evidence, people are left to interpret where you fit. They may approach you about the wrong roles, assess you below your actual level or move to someone whose position is easier to understand.
The reader's question
At the senior level, the issue is rarely whether you have a LinkedIn profile.
It is whether the profile gives the market a clear and accurate reason to contact you.
Findable and credible
A strong LinkedIn profile needs to help the right people find you and give them enough confidence to continue the conversation.
Being searchable
Requires the appropriate role titles, professional terms, sector language and areas of expertise to appear naturally throughout the profile.
A well-written profile with no clear professional terms may be credible but difficult to find.
Being credible
Requires much more. The profile must show your level, scope, business contribution, leadership and intended direction.
A profile full of keywords but short on evidence may appear in a search and still fail to create interest.
The two need to work together.
I understand recruitment and LinkedIn from both sides
20 years on the other side of the search
For 20 years, I recruited accounting, finance and executive professionals across the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
I built shortlists, reviewed candidate profiles and saw how recruiters and hiring leaders used LinkedIn to search, compare and verify professional information.
For the past 10 years, I have worked as an executive career strategist and resume writer, helping senior professionals position themselves for CFO, C-suite, commercial, operational, functional leadership and board opportunities. I also use LinkedIn every day and have built a professional audience of more than 28,500 people.
I understand how recruiters assess a profile, but I also understand how a senior leader needs to communicate authority without sounding like a job advertisement or a collection of keywords.
Same position, different job
The resume
Usually read in relation to a particular application. It provides detailed evidence selected for that opportunity.
The LinkedIn profile
May be reviewed before you know an opportunity exists. The reader may be deciding whether you belong in a search, whether to accept a connection request or whether your background is worth discussing.
The profile therefore needs to be broader than one application while remaining clear about the roles and environments that suit you. It should not repeat the resume word for word. It should provide a consistent professional story in a format suited to how LinkedIn is used.
What a strong LinkedIn profile makes clear
The evidence a senior reader needs
A strong profile should help the reader understand:
The goal is not to attract every possible approach. It is to improve the relevance of the people and opportunities reaching you.
The anatomy of a strong profile
Built as one position
Every element of the profile is written to support the same professional position, the one we agree during your strategy session.
The profile is not assembled from disconnected sections. It is one consistent case for why the right people should contact you.
Career and market position
Before rewriting the profile, we establish what you want to be known for, the roles you want to attract and how your experience should be presented.
Headline
More than a job title. A clear statement of your level, area of leadership and relevant expertise, in the language a recruiter types into search.
About section
Who you are professionally, the work you are known for and the value of your experience. Written for the reader, not the writer.
Experience entries
Each significant role establishes the mandate, operating environment, scope and business contribution. Evidence leads, responsibilities support.
Skills and professional terms
Reviewed, pruned and organised around your intended direction. Incorporated naturally so the profile stays readable, not a list of search phrases.
Featured section
Selected evidence, including articles, interviews, presentations and frameworks, that supports the position you want the market to understand.
Profile settings and visibility
Guidance on network notifications, profile visibility and Open to Work options, so you can make changes without announcing every update.
Using the profile once it is live
A rewritten profile is more useful in a deliberate approach
Depending on what you need, we may cover how to connect with recruiters, executive search consultants, hiring leaders and relevant professional contacts, as well as how to use the platform without appearing overly promotional.
What weakens a senior profile
A headline that provides no professional position
A headline such as "Chief Financial Officer at Company X" confirms your current role but says little about your broader expertise, market or leadership value.
An About section that could belong to anyone
Statements about being passionate, results-driven or committed to excellence do not help the reader understand what you have led, where you operate or why your experience matters.
Experience entries with no scope or evidence
A list of titles and dates leaves recruiters to work out the size, complexity and importance of each role. This is particularly damaging when an internal title understates the level at which you operate.
Too many unrelated keywords
Adding every possible title, function and capability can make the profile less clear. Search visibility is only valuable when the profile appears in the right searches and the content supports the position being claimed.
A resume and profile that point in different directions
The resume may position you for a C-suite role while LinkedIn still presents you as a functional specialist. It may also show different dates, titles or priorities. These inconsistencies create questions that should not exist.
Trying to stay invisible
Some senior professionals keep their profile deliberately thin because they do not want their employer to think they are looking. A credible profile does not need to announce a job search. It can present your experience professionally while supporting your current role and future direction.
The profile comes first
Posting can support visibility, authority and professional relationships, but it is not the first issue to address. A clear profile with little posting activity is stronger than frequent content attached to a weak or confusing professional position.
Content and networking should then support the same direction.
Who this is for
Senior professionals across Australia and New Zealand
I work with senior professionals across Australia and New Zealand, including:
The work is completed remotely and is suitable whether you are actively looking, responding to recruiter interest or preparing before you need to move. If you are a CFO or finance leader specifically, see the dedicated CFO and finance resume page.
Honest about the limits
It can
- Make you easier to find for relevant searches
- Help people assess your experience at the correct level
- Ensure your resume and online position support each other
- Reduce the risk of being overlooked for the wrong reasons
It cannot
- Guarantee recruiter approaches
- Create market demand where none exists
- Replace the need for a strong resume
- Compensate for an unclear professional position
Why senior leaders work with me
The difference a former recruiter brings
- 20 years recruiting accounting, finance and executive professionals
- 10 years as an executive career strategist and resume writer
- More than 5,000 resumes written
- A professional LinkedIn audience of more than 28,500
- Direct knowledge of the Australian and New Zealand hiring markets
- Resume and LinkedIn profile developed as one consistent professional position
- Every profile written personally, with no junior delegation
The aim is not to make your profile louder. It is to make your level, experience and value easier for the right people to understand.
If the right people cannot find you, the right roles pass you by.
Book a Clarity SessionLearn more about the Gold or Platinum packages on the Work With Me page. Interview support is also available through executive interview preparation.
Do You Need the Foundation or
Support Across the Full Search?
Both packages begin with an Executive Career and Market Assessment and Executive Positioning Strategy Session. The difference is what happens after your documents are complete.
Gold
Executive Positioning
For senior leaders who broadly know what they want next and are comfortable managing their own applications, recruiter relationships and broader search.
Gold builds your executive market position.
- Executive Career and Market Assessment
- Executive Positioning Strategy Session
- Executive resume
- Targeted cover letter
- LinkedIn profile optimisation
- Debrief call
Platinum
Executive Career Transition
For senior executives who do not want to manage a complex career transition alone.
Platinum puts your executive position to work across the complete search.
- Everything included in Gold
- Recruiter, networking and direct approach strategy
- Assessment of serious opportunities
- Role-specific resume and supporting material
- Detailed interview research and preparation
- Coaching before each formal interview process
- Offer assessment and salary negotiation
- Six months of direct support, then monthly
The best roles are filled quietly, through executive search, referrals and direct approaches. They do not always go to the strongest candidate. They go to the person whose value is clearest.
Numbers That Speak For Themselves
Success Stories
"Throughout my recent job search, the consistent feedback from recruiters was that my CV was top tier and very well positioned... The updates she made to my LinkedIn profile also led to some excellent inbound opportunities, with recruiters reaching out proactively."
"I highly recommend Belinda Paris for branding support. Belinda helped me significantly strengthen both my LinkedIn profile and CV, positioning my experience in a far clearer and more compelling way. She has a strong understanding of how senior finance leaders need to present their value in the market."
"Throughout my recent job search, the consistent feedback from recruiters was that my CV was top tier and very well positioned... The updates she made to my LinkedIn profile also led to some excellent inbound opportunities, with recruiters reaching out proactively."
"I highly recommend Belinda Paris for branding support. Belinda helped me significantly strengthen both my LinkedIn profile and CV, positioning my experience in a far clearer and more compelling way. She has a strong understanding of how senior finance leaders need to present their value in the market."
"Belinda is absolutely incredible at what she does. Whether it is career coaching, career strategy, resume writing, LinkedIn profile optimisation, or interview coaching, she nails it every single time. She has an amazing ability to really see your strengths."
"Belinda brings a rare combination of deep industry experience, strategic insight, and an action-oriented approach to helping executives land their dream roles. Her expertise in resume writing, LinkedIn optimization, and career coaching is second to none."
"Belinda is absolutely incredible at what she does. Whether it is career coaching, career strategy, resume writing, LinkedIn profile optimisation, or interview coaching, she nails it every single time. She has an amazing ability to really see your strengths."
"Belinda brings a rare combination of deep industry experience, strategic insight, and an action-oriented approach to helping executives land their dream roles. Her expertise in resume writing, LinkedIn optimization, and career coaching is second to none."
Guides for your LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn Skills and Keywords
How recruiters and search firms search LinkedIn, and where your keywords need to sit.
Your LinkedIn Headline and About Section
What senior leaders get wrong in the two sections recruiters read first.
CFO LinkedIn Profile
What search firm researchers filter on when they look for a CFO.
LinkedIn Visibility While Employed
How to build a stronger profile without your employer thinking you are leaving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most senior clients complete their LinkedIn profile as part of my Gold package. Investment is confirmed after the Clarity Session. Gold includes career analysis, a strategy consultation, executive resume, targeted cover letter, LinkedIn profile optimisation and a debrief call. Coaching sessions can be added for $550 plus GST per 45-minute session. LinkedIn profile writing on its own is quoted separately. We work out the right scope during the Clarity Session.
The Executive Career
Positioning Guide
Discover the exact strategies written for senior leaders to land roles they love, with higher salaries and greater fulfilment.
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5,000+ resumes written.